Goyle's Woe
by redcandle
Summary: Gregory Goyle wonders why Draco is angry with him and learns the reason for his miserable life. One-shot.


"Goyle's Woes"

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and elements belong to J.K. Rowling.

Gregory Goyle truddled behind Draco Malfoy, hunching to make his massive frame less noticeable. Draco was furious, and Gregory didn't want to draw his wrath. When there was no one else to take his anger out on, Draco didn't hesitate to lash out at his friends. Friends, ha! Gregory might not be the brighest wizard in his year, but he knew enough to know that Draco was not his friend. Draco was his master, his father's master's son, his leader, his protector even, but never his friend.

Draco never thought of him as a friend either. His presence prevented other students from physically attacking Draco, who didn't have the courage or capability to back up his big mouth. He even assaulted people for Draco, trusting Draco to prevent him from being punished. Gregory was, to be brutally honest, Draco's bodyguard and thug. It never bothered him much that that was the way other students perceived him. After all, it was the truth.

However, then came the formation of Ministerial Undersecretary/Professor Dolores Umbrigde's Inquisitorial Squad. And Gregory wasn't chosen to be a member of it. It was Draco's doing, he knew. Umbrigde had consulted with Draco, Harry Potter's most prominent detractor at Hogwarts, when she chose her assistant Inquisitors. Really, the members of the squad had been chosen by Draco. Draco had chosen Millicent, the older Quidditch players, the other Slytherin prefects, and Crabbe. But not him, not Gregory Goyle, his faithful servant. He'd ask Draco about it, once.

"It's like this, Goyle," Draco had said, with a cold smile that didn't reach his contemptous gaze, "My father is rather angry with your father at the moment. This is part of your family's punishment."

His father had made Lucius Malfoy angry! Gregory hadn't heard anything from his father about that when he'd been home for the Christmas holidays. He felt a little proud and a lot scared. His family had always done as the Malfoys bidded, they had for generations. He'd wished they could just leave the Malfoys far behind. He'd said as much when he was a little boy. His mother had slapped him, a fearful look in her eyes. Then she'd hugged him and warned him to never, ever say anything like that again. She'd said his father would tell him when he was older. He was sixteen now, and almost as big as his father, but neither of his parents had told him why he had to devote his life to the Malfoys.

"Crabbe! Where have you been?" Draco demanded, imperiously. His voice jarred Gregory out of his thoughts.

"Sorry, Draco." Vincent Crabbe said, "I was with a girl in one of the closets."

"You!" Draco laughed, "Which girl was it? Must have been Eloise Midgen, only she would be so desperate."

"No, Draco," Vincent said, eagerly, "It wasn't Midgen. It was a fourth year Ravenclaw. She was very pretty."

Draco raised one perfect blonde eyebrow, "Really? Then what was she doing with you?"

Vincent tapped the tiny Inquisitorial Squad pin on his robes, "I told her I'd deduct all Ravenclaw's points if she didn't go in the closet with me."

Draco looked momentarily shocked, then he burst out laughing. He slapped Vincent on the back, "You're smarter than you look." He turned to Gregory, "Don't you wish you were on the squad now? You might have gotten laid."

"Yeah, I wish I was." Gregory said, looking down at his boots.

Draco remembered why he had been looking for Crabbe moments before. "Potter and his friends are up to something." He said, "Professor Umbrigde's wants all of us to gather in her office..." He peered at his watch, "In half an hour."

"What are we going to be doing?" Gregory asked.

"Not you." Draco sneered, "Inquisitors only. You go to bed and play with yourself."

Gregory nodded a little, mostly to acknowledge Vincent's sympathetic look. He mumbled an apology to Draco and turned to go to the dungeons, hoping Draco would call him back. Draco didn't, he just started to boast about how Umbrigde would let him punish Potter and his accomplices to Vincent as the two of them went off the the opposite direction. Gregory slowly walked toward to Slytherin common room, not knowing what to do with his free time.

He collided with Professor Snape as he turned a corner. "Mr. Goyle!" Snape said, "Mind where you're walking." But he didn't take points or give him detention, something Gregory knew he'd have done if it had been a student from one of the other houses.

"Sorry, Professor Snape." He said, looking at the stone floor as he continued on his way.

"Halt." Snape said.

Gregory stopped and turned back to look at Snape. Snape sighed and walked a few feet closer to him. "Is something the matter, Mr. Goyle?"

"No, sir." Gregory answered. Then the words burst out. "Yes, sir, Draco is mad at me and I don't know why. He says my family has to be punished." Gregory was appalled at himself, saying something like that to Professor Snape. But then he remembered that Draco'd told him that Snape was one of them. A supporter of the Dark Lord, he'd meant. Gregory relaxed a little.

Snape looked up at the ceiling for a moment before meeting Gregory's eyes. "Mr. Goyle, do you know why your family follows the Malfoy family?"

"No, sir, I don't know why." Gregory said.

Snape gave him a look that, had it been anyone else, would have been called pitying. "I don't suppose you've done the essays Professor Binns assigned to your class?" At the sake of Gregory's head, Snape sighed and continued, "I thought not. If you had done your homework, you would know that in the past centuries both our world and the muggle world practiced something called serfdom. Poorer families were bound as property to wealthier families. Oh, they had a few more rights than slaves, but they were not free men and women." Snape stopped and looked at him expectantly.

Gregory stared at him blankly, not understanding what any of that had to do with him.

"Such a system is no longer practiced in this part of the muggle world," Snape said, "But I am sorry to say that some wizarding families still practice it. Your family, Mr. Goyle, has been bound to the Malfoy family as servants for centuries."

Gregory continued to look at the head of his house blankly.

"You and your parents are little more than slaves, Gregory," Snape said, softly, putting his hand on Gregory's shoulder. "I believe that Mr. Malfoy is angry with your family because of something your father said at a recent meeting of certain important people. Your father asked why purebloods had to continue serving purebloods, he wanted to know why mudbloods couldn't serve that purpose instead. A very important man seemed to take the question seriously, which is certainly enough to enrage Lucius Malfoy."

Was Professor Snape telling him he was lower than a mudblood? Snape patted his shoulder and wished him a good night. Gregory went to his bed, and drew the curtains. He sat huddled on the covers, wondering what he was supposed to do. He sat there until he heard the other fifth year Slytherin boys come in hours later. He waited until silence descended on the room, knowing they'd all gone to bed. He crawled out of his bed and walked over to Vincent's bed. He tugged at Vincent's curtains and Vincent opened them.

"What do you want?" Vincent asked, sounding tired.

Vincent was his best friend, so Gregory told him what Snape'd said.

"You mean you didn't know?" Vincent yawned

Vincent's parents told him to do what Draco wanted too. "Is your family...like mine?" Gregory asked.

"Yeah."

"What are we going to do?" Gregory whispered.

"What do you mean? We're going to follow Draco, like always." Vincent said, rolling over. "Good night, Greg."

Gregory returned to his own bed and laid under the covers. What was he going to do? What could he do? It was a wizarding tradition. It was part of their pure wizarding world. Wasn't that what their parents were fighting the ministry for, why they were following the Dark Lord? There was nothing he could do, except what he'd always done. Obey Draco.

End (4/29/05)


End file.
